Here's what I've found on mine so far.
1) passenger side, rear door exterior b-pillar (black shiny trim) bowed out (as mentioned in my other thread) and rubber window trim torn. May or may not be related to a rear passenger side broken window that was replaced before the dealer took possession.
2) Raised bleb in the hatch sheet metal. Appears to have been there before paint. Doesn't really bother me since it is hardly noticeable and the paint job does not appear affected (picture pending). IMHO a fix would be worse.
I took delivery of an Agate Black ST on 7/3 and mostly have cosmetic issues. However, a couple weeks in the lane centering feature of the adaptive cruise control stop working. Here’s what I tallied so far:
1) Dirt particles in paint. I’ve counted about 8 so far. They are hard to see but... Should there be that many?
2) Wavy paint on the tailgate. There is a line of excess paint across the lower part of the tailgate where it tucks under, about 2” before the edge. Plus, it looks like someone sanded a two inch radius blemish off the bottom edge and they just painted over all of it. Admittedly, all of this is hard to see as it is on the lower edge. This is a little disappointing, but I prefer not to have the dealer re-paint it.
3) If you look at an extreme angle at the driver and passenger side front doors, there are two 6” or 8” vertical indentations (about a coupe of feet apart). Since they are on both doors, I assume this was caused by part of the manufacturing process (either some form of adhesive underneath is pulling on the door skin or perhaps from a tool that carried the doors to the assembly line). Interestingly, this is barely visible. I did not see it until a body shop guy pointed it out to me. He said a PDR guy may be able to remove them. This is so hard to see, again, I’d prefer to live with it than cause further damage.
4) Finish scratches on the hood. There were multiple vertical lines in the clear coat from front to back on the hood. One was deep enough that I took it to a body shop to wet sand. The others look like it came from an automatic car wash; these are minimal and I preferred not to polish the hood too aggressively. I figure I’ll end up waxing most of this away over time anyway.
5) An interior wall by the 3rd row seats has what appears to be a 2” by 2” upside down letter “U” embossed in grey on the black surface. It looks like during assembly this section of wall was pushed on causing this defect to appear; I’m curious what piece of equipment is under the wall? The dealer said they will replace it, if I want. However, the section is so large, I’m wondering if it is better to leave it than have so much of the interior torn out?
6) Interior D pillar was not attached correctly. Dealer fixed this easily. One problem down!
7) Several of the grey plastic wheel arches and lower body mouldings have fine (and a couple of rough) scratches in them. I originally wanted them replaced, but again, will more damage be done removing and replacing them? I’ll likely leave them as is as they can only be seen while viewed from a couple of inches away.
Overall, I still enjoy the truck and think it looks great. I guess this is part of being among the first to have a new Explorer. Hopefully, Ford will help the dealer solve the Lane Centering issue and future software updates will keep things running smoothly.
